From: Damien Broderick (d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au)
Date: Thu Jul 04 2002 - 20:48:06 MDT
Terry, you might care to point out to `Rob' (nice review, that), that the
following is incorrect:
------
There is an ancient joke from the days of computer punch cards. Technicians
finally wired together the most powerful computer in the world. Super-fast
and with every sort of knowledge in its memory banks, it was set to answer
any question. As an initial test, the techs decided to give it the biggest
question of all, the one people have been working on for as long as they
have been thinking: "Is there a God?" The tech typed in the question, the
rows of lights blinked on and off and the reels of tape ran through.
Finally the paper tape reeled out of the computer with the answer typed on
it: "THERE IS NOW."
================================
It's not an ancient joke, it's a famous sf short-short story by Fredric
Brown (`Answer', 1954), so it might well have preceded routine use of
Hollerith cards. The god computer is, in effect, a galactic Internet: all
the machines in all the galaxies are linked superluminally. The story's in
at least 17 anthologies, and here it is in full:
http://www.alteich.com/oldsite/answer.htm
Damien Broderick
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